Why waste money on thin, saccharine store-bought Bloody Mary mix when you can quickly and easily whip something up at home for a hangover-beating brunch? Here’s my recipe, scaled up so you can make it a pitcher a time. Or do what I do and prepare the mix in the tomato juice bottle for easy mixing, storage, and clean-up.

One 32-ounce bottle of plain-old tomato juice.

2 Tablespoons prepared horseradish

One large or two small lemons, juiced

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 Tablespoon Tabasco sauce

1 teaspoon celery salt

10 generous turns of freshly ground black pepper

Pour yourself a small glass of tomato juice and set aside. In the tomato juice bottle, add horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire, Tabasco, celery salt, and pepper. Reseal the bottle tightly and shake vigorously until all the ingredients are well-incorporated. You should see whisps of horseradish throughout.

Pour two ounces of vodka, gin, or blanco tequila in a highball glass filled with ice. Add Bloody Mary mix, stir, top with a grind of pepper and a dash of celery salt, and garnish with a celery stick, lemon wedge, and/or cocktail olives. I typically leave out the Tabasco, Worcestershire, pepper, and celery salt so people can doctor their drinks to their taste.

Although the Bloody Mary is considered a vodka-based drink, my grandfather used to make his with gin and I’ve found that a decent sweet-savory gin like Seagram’s, Beefeater, or Bombay work great with a spicier Bloody Mary. Use silver tequila for a Bloody Maria. You can also add a Tablespoon of clam juice (it’s actually pretty good, I promise) to make a Bloody Caesar. Lastly, and most importantly, you can rim a pint glass with chili salt and mix two parts light Mexican beer (I like Pacifico) and one part Bloody Mary mix for a deliciously bracing michelada.